Finding inspiration

Hey,

I am an amateur and still learning. I recently had a baby and she has been the main focus of my pictures. I want to expand my picture taking but I find that my camera sits in the closet for stretches at a time. My questions is this... how do I get inspired? Where can I find new ideas? I guess I would say I'm struggling with my creativity. Does anyone have any methods for coming up with new ideas?

thanks,

Matt

I usually look into my feelings and to find out what I am feeling in a particular week or day. Then, I would try to find and locate a particular scene in my neighborhood (usually in the park) and trying to see if my photos can express this feeling. A lot of times I would go through all the places (mentally) I have been and to see if any of the particular place would be interesting enough to capture my feelings.

Another way to get motivated to shoot is to buy new gear. Somewhat an expensive solution to the creativity block...hehehehe

If you look at the very bottom of this page, you will see some links under, "Similar Threads", that should (hopefully) have a lot of things for you to read.

Randy

I get my inspiration from constantly looking at other people's work. It gives me a lot of ideas on composition, editing, and style.

Browse the picture sharing threads on this board and I'm sure you'll get plenty of inspirations.

cYn wrote in post #15222980
I get my inspiration from constantly looking at other people's work. It gives me a lot of ideas on composition, editing, and style.

Browse the picture sharing threads on this board and I'm sure you'll get plenty of inspirations.

To expand on that, do get some nice photography books, especially ones of old master photographers anywhere from before the 1920's or so. Nothing humbles the mind as much as looking at 100+ year old photos and seeing that photographers were, on the whole, better than most are now... paradoxically. Kind of the same way few people are better artists than Renoir or Michelangelo today.

Check these out; Russian color photos... From 1900-1915!
http://blogs.denverpos​t.com …n-in-the-early-1900s/544/

They are from a collection of about 2600 such photos free to view and download: http://www.loc.gov …earch/?co=prok&​st=gallery

Look at other people's work.
Shoot something you don't usually shoot.
Walk the streets with your camera and do some street shooting.

Sometimes I'll go weeks or months without shooting though. My opinion is that you can't force inspiration.

nicksan wrote in post #15224450
Look at other people's work.
Shoot something you don't usually shoot.
Walk the streets with your camera and do some street shooting.

Sometimes I'll go weeks or months without shooting though. My opinion is that you can't force inspiration.

In addition to that, look at Baby Photography

mcgorman611 wrote in post #15222813
Hey,

I am an amateur and still learning. I recently had a baby and she has been the main focus of my pictures. I want to expand my picture taking but I find that my camera sits in the closet for stretches at a time. My questions is this... how do I get inspired? Where can I find new ideas? I guess I would say I'm struggling with my creativity. Does anyone have any methods for coming up with new ideas?

thanks,

Matt

Inspiration mostly happens when people are working, so just work.

And yes...that's when "working", not when "shooting". Shooting is obviously very important, but it's not the only way to "work" and it's not the only source of inspiration.

I'm not really a fan of the "shoot lots of pictures every day" mindset. But if you're not gonna shoot, you ought to be "working" somehow. Write a journal entry about potential ideas, do some research, go through old photos and see what's working and what's not, draw sketches of ideas you had, cut out magazines pages of images you like, write a dream journal, go see a new movie and pay attention to the visual design employed. Just...work. Hell...if nothing else, blindly go out with the intention of getting 200 or so captures, then go through ALL of them and pay attention to what you shot. With the entire world in front of you, and you shooting blindly, I guarantee that there are still gonna be patterns. Either you photographing a lot of stuff with a similar theme or aesthetic, that kind of thing. If nothing else, just plain shoot blindly and then in retrospect pay really good attention to recognize what kinds of stuff you're shooting and why you shot it and why you shot it that particular way.

But you've gotta work. Even during the times when someone gets a good idea merely by driving to work or eating cheetos while watching porn on the sofa, one still sort of has to put in the work to capture those ideas or else they often just vanish like a fart in the wind. I'm not even saying that you need to shoot all the time (though if it's only rarely that you shoot, there may be a problem). I'm just saying that even if one doesn't shoot, there are all sorts of ways that one can still be working. And that's what you've gotta do, because in my experience, most people don't "find inspiration" by just sitting on their asses doing nothing. Even if you don't touch a camera for an entire year, you should have some ideas once you decide to pick it up again.

goto 500px.com

on there you will find inspiration

Inspiration stems from want, at least in my case. I wanted dusk and dawn scenic shots so I made myself wake up crazy early to get some shots. Well worth it for me. Fine tune what you really want to shoot and go from there

Are the images of your child really great? To strive to produce great images of your child should provide plenty of inspiration to get better. Create a brag book of your best photo's, and show the book to family and friends, listen to their comments. Take photo's of flowers, plants and insects at your home. I try to take photo's 3 times a week, If I don't have time to leave the house, I find things at home to shoot. -rick

Wow. Thank you everyone for the feedback. I am definitely going to take the wonderful advice given. Already started looking at a lot of the sites and forums you suggested.

Matt